I don't usually do politics here. My nephew Dan (click on his blog above) is more adept at understanding the nuances of politics and writing about them than I am so I let him do it for me. But I want to say this: it's primary day here in NYC and I'm voting for Al Sharpton. If he had any chance of winning I wouldn't do it, because one, he wouldn't make a great President and two, he can't beat Bush. But the obvious truth is it'll either be Kerry or Edwards and I'll support whoever it is. What I like about Sharpton, and Kucinich too, is the way they're forcing the leftist agenda to remain part of the Democrat's discussion. In the last-man-standing debate the four of them had the other night, Sharpton, asked about gay marriage, said: "The issue is not who you go to bed with. The issue is whether either of you has a job when you get up in the morning." I'd like to see more Democrats doing this -- pulling the argument onto an issue-oriented, as opposed to "lifestyle"-oriented, battlefield. We've let the right blow a lot of obscuring smoke with issues like gay marriage, school prayer, and Janet Jackson's breast, at a time when our economy and foreign relations are a mess and we're actively fighting a war on two middle eastern fronts. This bread and circuses thing has got to stop and we've got to demand that politicians focus on the issues. Sharpton's is a voice making that demand and I'm voting to keep that voice shouting as long as possible.